Abstract [en]

Today's business activity is increasingly related with work in projects. This change hasoccurred rapidly, and studies show that the project portfolio in an organization can growby as much as 50 % per year (Deloitte, 2006). As a result, many organizations have notkept pace with the increasing number of projects, and a formal methodology forevaluating project candidates is often scarce. This means that valuable resources canend up in the "wrong" project. Project Portfolio Management, PPM, is the managementof the project portfolio so as to maximize the contribution of projects to the overallwelfare and success of the enterprise (Levine, 2008). This study focuses on Atlas Copco Tools’ introduction of PPM and its impact on thedecision-making regarding the prioritization of project candidates. The analysis is basedon theories and studies in the field of Project Portfolio Management. In this paper, atotal of three interviews were conducted within the areas of marketing and R&D, inorder to get a better overall picture of the company's project methodology. As a part of the reorganization, a so-called product management team has been formed.It consists of people with specific skills and extensive industry experience. Parts of thestrategic decision-making have been moved from the managerial body to the productmanagement team, promising balanced and solid strategy decisions in the long term. The analysis shows that the company has developed a solid basis for priority decisions. More thorough pre-studies, conducted by people with specific skills, result in moreaccurate financial calculations (NPV). These then lead to more formal and accuratebusiness cases, forming the foundation for the decision-making of which projectcandidates to start up. Follow-up on individual projects, and the benefit that theydeliver, is still missing. A methodology for this would allow identification of successfactors and facilitate future priority decision-making. With the introduction of PPM, the company has laid a sound organizational basis forallowing the retention of its position as branch leader. This reorganization is also astable base to meet the stated growth strategy.